Hitting Mileage Again

I finally hit over 40 miles of running for the week for the first time since my injury in the fall. This is actually the low end of my mileage for the VT100 training plan, but it’s been tough to get mileage up there with the weather we’ve been having. We’ve had a significant snow storm every 3 days for about two weeks, but it’s finally done and the temperatures have been rising!

This week I relied a lot on the treadmill. It’s not something I normally do, but I wanted to pad my mileage and it’s an easy way to add some miles on days when I double and I ended up doubling three days this week.

I got out for a great ValRUNtine’s Day run with Tulah and Zorro on Tuesday. It was the first day I had them both attached to my waist and had them harnessed together. They did an amazing job working together and kept the pace pretty steady for 4 miles. I’m looking forward to more clear roads so I can take them out more. Lately they haven’t had much of a chance to run since the snow is too deep on the trails and the shoulders are too narrow on the roads.

Thursday was the day after yet another snowstorm and I didn’t have to work so I helped my friend Tom create a course for the SIX03 Back 9 Snowshoe Race series. Unfortunately, the first two races in the season were cancelled due to a lack of snow, but we had PLENTY of snow to work with this week. Tom and I were the only ones to have set foot out on the Rochester Country Club course, so we were breaking trail in big snowshoes for 3 miles in snow up to our knees. It was a slog, but a really fun day and hard workout!

As always, Friday is the SIX03 Rollinsford Trail Pub Run from North Country Hard Cider. It was another fun night of snowshoeing, sipping on cider, and planning for the weekend’s long run. I decided to run my 16 miles on the road this week and met up with some friends who are training for their 2nd marathon. They typically run 9-10:30min/mi pace, which is actually great for me for training for the 100. It keeps me relaxed and reined in as the miles get long. I think I’ll be doing a lot of longer road miles at this pace as I move toward bigger mileage weeks. It’s 1-2:30min/mi slower than I usually would run a long run, but I’m starting to embrace the time-on-feet mentality of ultras. Plus, it’s great to run with a group that I don’t usually get to train with!

As I walked in the door on Saturday after finishing my 16miler, Tom texted me and asked me to come meet him in an hour and a half to go stomp down the course again before the snowshoe race on Sunday. So, I showered and headed out the door again pack things down with Tom and my friends Phil and Scott. We’re all running the VT100 so a lot of our chatter during the hike was about who would be on our crew and how we’re training. I couldn’t help but think we might all be plodding along together in the heat of summer somewhere in the VT mountains! It’s something I’ll try to remember as I’m out there suffering in July.

Today was the snowshoe race. I got to the venue early to run the course once before the racers gave it a shot. It was mushy and narrow and really hard! I was happy to be volunteering instead of racing. I ended up cheering and taking pictures around a mile in and then made it back to the finish line for more cheering. The SIX03 women dominated by taking the top 3 spots (1st: Sarah Canney, 2nd: Jessica Goldman, 3rd: Deborah Towle) and my friends Phil and Scott came in 1st and 3rd, respectively!

It was a fun week to get back into the groove of running on roads and hitting bigger mileage on the weekend! LOTS of time on feet this week!